Brother Fred Mercy, SJ, passed away January 1, 2025, at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California. Br. Mercy was born on March 17, 1935, in Seattle. He entered the Society on March 11, 1967, in Sheridan, Oregon, and professed his final vows July 31, 1985. He was 89 years old and a Jesuit for 57 years.
Br. Mercy worked primarily with the poor and homeless in programs in Portland, Seattle, Yakima, and with Native Americans in Omak, Washington, and served as an addiction counselor in Zambia. He was a pastoral minister, did retreat work and published a book of spiritual reflections. He was a mentor and supporter of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Seattle and Yakima and the Catholic Worker movement in Tacoma.
He was a passionate advocate for the poor and was equally passionate about issues of peace and nuclear disarmament. In 1982-83, he joined a group who made a pilgrimage of peace, walking from Seattle across the U.S., through Europe to Bethlehem, a 6,500-mile journey that took the better part of two years. In 1994 he participated in civil disobedience at Fort Benning, Georgia, protesting the School of the Americas, which trained foreign troops complicit in human rights violations. Convicted of trespassing along with other clergy, nuns and laypeople, he was sentenced to two months in federal prison. He remained a passionate advocate until the end of his life. In 2016, he began his ministry of prayer for the Church and the Society at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.
Br. Mercy is survived by his sister-in-law, Kathi Mercy; niece, Jennifer Hill; nephews Fred and Stephen Mercy; and cousins John Sweet and Elizabeth Luthy. Close family will remember him at a private funeral Mass and inurnment in Spokane.
A Memorial Mass will be offered at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, CA on Friday, January 24, 2025 at 11:15 am. All are most welcome to attend the Memorial Mass or the livestream link is below.
